


False Confidence

by BrightTerror



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brotherly Love, Canon Divergence 1x10, Dave lives, Five and Klaus have some quality bonding time by terrrorising a cafe, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I promise luther isnt as bad as he seems at the beginning, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Klaus Gets A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Luther and diego have half a braincell but they try their best, Luther is an ass at first but he gets better, M/M, Not Incest, Not Season/Series 02 Compliant, The siblings suck at emotions but they try their best, he is alive.. eventually., i hate that i have to tag it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25737622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightTerror/pseuds/BrightTerror
Summary: They manage to avoid the apocalypse by being there for Vanya instead of villainizing her, all of them begin to deal with their problems and try to be better siblings while Klaus is doing his best to summon Dave again.orKlaus still has a lot to deal with after the apocalypse with all the ghosts and flashbacks but for once he doesn't have to go through it alone, he has his siblings there for him.Set during the events of 1x10
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Dave/Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 16
Kudos: 336





	False Confidence

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first The Umbrella Academy fic, I hope you all like it :) I wrote it a year ago and forgot to post it until now, so there is no season 2 spoilers..  
> This isn't beta read so I'm sorry for any errors.

Allison wrote in her notepad, showing it to Luther, she was frowning from disappointment at her brother. "It's her time to shine, interrupt her recital and she will be the least of your problems"

They were all outside the Icarus Theatre where Vanya was playing, Luther wanted to stop her mid performance, but the rest of the siblings had other, much better plans. Allison had decided that even though all of them were shitty siblings and had a fucked up childhood, they could make it right this time by being there for their sister and she would not let Luther mess it up.

"Allison has a point." Five said thoughtfully. He appeared seconds before, having left the handler while she was in mid-sentence, he had no intentions of listening to her. She really was an idiot; he had betrayed her twice and she thought he was going with her? Pathetic. Besides, his family was more important, and they needed him.

"I thought you agreed with me on this." Luther complained, scowling at his older brother.

"If she has the power that causes the goddamn apocalypse, I do not want to piss her off in front of all these people. It will only make it worse, especially if  _ you _ try to stop her, you know," Five paused for dramatic effect, "after you locked her in a dungeon." He replied with an eye roll.

"Five and Allison have a point, she will not like you at all after you locked her down there, which could have potentially made her resurface traumatic memories." Klaus spat. He was there with the rest after he refused to be on lookout that Luther sent him to, but what good would that do, they never listened to him anyways. "Besides, you know how much she practiced ever since she was a kid, this is important to her and making her angry will not help. I don't want to die again, I have enough dead people pestering me while I'm living, and the wrong dead people at that, can't imagine how it's going to be when I finally kick the bucket for good."

"Now wait a minute. Traumatic experience? You do not know what you are talking about, I had to put her there until we decided what to do, she was dangerous... What she did to Allison-" Luther started, he took a stance near Klaus.

"I don't know what I'm talking about? I am the  _ most _ qualified one about it!" Klaus yelled; then moved an inch closer to the monkey man. "Dad used to put me-“ he closed his mouth deciding to focus on Vanya instead “he locked Vanya as a child in a spikey room, lied to her about her powers and drugged her with pills until he died just to keep her controlled." Klaus walked dramatically around the place before he started imitating Luther, but in a high pitch, mocking noise. "Oh, but dear old daddy made me go to the moon!" He pretended to be offended and then deadpanned at Luther.

"Listen I was alone-"

"We get it, you were alone for four years." Diego interrupted. He put a hand on Klaus's shoulder as a sign of comfort before he turned to Allison and Five. "So, it is settled, we will try to talk to Vanya  _ after _ her recital. Let’s go sit down, I think it just started."

_______

Vanya was playing in first chair, her glowing white eyes focused on the crowd as she played the violin. She was now confident, yet still all alone. That was until she looked at the ocean of people in front of her and saw that four rows into the crowd, Diego and Five were sitting quietly while looking at her, she panicked until she saw they gave her a reassuring smile; they were there to watch her play, she felt warm inside. She looked around for the rest and saw Allison and Klaus were situated closer to the stage. Allison gave her a small smile, which Vanya returned, and Klaus was grinning at her, quietly clapping looking overly excited.

Luther was at the back of the theatre, near the entrance, Vanya could spot his gigantic shoulders.

She could feel her power increasing along with all the new emotions she felt, but she still was in control of them, for now.

—-

Klaus could see Vanya glowing white, he felt proud of his sister for the fact she had powers that she learned to control so quickly, after all he still had trouble dealing with his own. He wasn't going to lie, he was slightly concerned about the amount of power she had and he knew she could end him in a second if she wanted to, so, he quickly decided, from now on he would only piss off Diego or Luther.... and Five. Allison was too cool to annoy.

Then to break the perfect moment, various men in red-ish masks with machine guns appeared and started shooting all over the place. Everyone in the audience started fleeing, the other musicians stopped playing and ran backstage, meanwhile Vanya was in sort of a haze, playing the violin as she glowed.

Klaus swore under his breath as the shooting started, he ducked under the empty seats, and intelligently enough, the rest of his siblings too.

"You know these guys?" Luther asked Five, who was wincing at the gunshots.

"Yeah I do." Five lamented.

Diego looked at Five judgingly. "And???"

"Well, we are screwed."

"Fuck." Ben cursed. He looked at Diego who was throwing knives at them while hiding, Allison could not fight, and Luther was not of use at the moment. Five teleported himself to piggyback on the back of a shooter while killing him.

Klaus's hands began to shake, probably because he was sober and in withdrawal. However, when his hands started glowing blue his eyes widened, he didn't know what was happening. His hands shook more, increasing the intensity of the glowing and Ben appeared from it, who proceeded to look around for a second, taking the situation in before giant tentacles came out of him, trapping each shooter and ending the threat.

After the guys were taken down, Ben disappeared from the view of the others, leaving it to Klaus to be the only one who could see him, as usual. Klaus laughed in shock and glee.

Allison had gone towards the stage while the whole commotion and shooting happened. She knew what she was about to do could potentially kill her, but this was her sister that needed her support and Allison was sure as hell she was going to be there for her. Allison tapped her on the shoulder, carefully and softly, that’s when Vanya snapped out of the haze she was in and took a look of her surroundings. She looked at her sister as she gave a ghost of a smile though she had a pained expression.

Allison slowly took the violin away from her, it was white now, glowing just like Vanya, as soon as she got rid of the violin she hugged her sister, letting her fall on her as they hugged. Allison said everything she could not say through the hug.  _ It is going to be okay, you’re not alone anymore. _

Vanya fainted on the ground the moment she stopped glowing and Klaus, Five and Diego ran towards her.

Cha Cha walked in, bloody face, limping. She headed towards the siblings with an axe on her hand. Diego saw her and his blood boiled, he took a look at Vanya on the ground surrounded by all her siblings and he knew she was safe for now. Then, he took out his favourite knife and strutted towards Cha Cha.

_________

"Where should we go now?" Luther said as they walked outside the theatre while holding Vanya in his arms.

"I would say my place, but that varies from day to day." Klaus shrugged.

Allison wrote in her notepad. "Her house." Then pointed at her unconscious sister.

They nodded in agreement and started to walk there when a voice startled them.

"What are you talking about silly? Just take her to the academy." Grace said. She was standing a couple of feet away from the siblings in her usual dress, that was now torn apart and dusty. Her hair was a mess, but she still smiled brightly, with her red lipstick.

"M-Mom?" Diego whimpered, walking slowly towards her as if he could not believe she was real. "How are you a-a-alive? We saw the b-building fall on top of y-you"

"A building can't crush me, I was created to withstand Vanya's tantrums, the building was like a scratch." She smiled.

"But mom, we can't go to the academy, it was blown to pieces." Diego said. He held Grace's hand, still not believing she was alive. his eyes were teary, but he smiled. "Don’t you remember?"

"You think your Father had only one institution? He has had a house nearby ever since you were kids in case someone tried to attack it beyond repairs." She smiled at Diego then looked at the others. "Let’s go kids, you'll get sick if you stay outside too long."

"Dad really was a sick bastard." Klaus said, as he shook his head and gave a dry laugh.

The others did not really know what to say so they just followed Grace through the streets wordlessly.

_______

The place wasn't as big as the Academy, but it was big. They headed inside and it reminded them of their house, it was furnished so it looked exactly like it. There were ten rooms, one for each of the kids, one for Pogo and two for Reginald, which included a training room for the kids. It was clear the old man had a plan for everything.

Luther put Vanya in a room, she was still unconscious. He left to the living room where all the other siblings were waiting. "We need a plan to attack in case-"

"I'm going to stop you there. We are not attacking anyone; she is our sister. We treated her badly for too long and now it's time we change that." Five said.

"As number one-"

"Here he goes again." Klaus commented, letting himself fall dramatically into a couch.

"Oh, I just got it." Diego ignored Luther; his eyes widened. "Dad was a monster but he did everything for a reason didn't he. Why the numbers in that order, he was too crazy to make it at random."

Allison showed her notepad to Diego. "Is this going anywhere?" she rolled her eyes at them.

"No it's not." Luther scowled. "We know why he put me number one, he knew I was a leader."

Klaus laughed at the statement which earned him a glare from Luther that Klaus happily ignored.

"He ranked us because of our powers." Diego finished.

Klaus thought about it. "Holy shit Diego is right."

Diego pointed at Klaus with a laugh. "See? he gets it."

"When did we change the subject? Why?" Five sighed and sat down next to Allison.

Klaus stood up. "Let me explain, what thoughts probably happened in the fucked-up head of dear old dad." He took a deep breath and put on his best worst accent of Reginald to impersonate him. "Huh, this toddler is super strong, could be useful but isn't as great, he should be, Number one." Klaus had his eyes wide opened to look like the creepy old man. "Throwing things? Two. This one can alter reality which might be useful with training, three." Klaus pointed at himself. "Talk to the dead, number four." Klaus laughed, going back to his usual voice. "And then Five can time travel which is so cool, so dad would put him up in the scale, but since Ben basically had tentacles coming out of him, well you can see why he is six." He opened his mouth in shock. "And now we know why Vanya is seven." He giggled. "All these years and we cracked the code, Diego you genius bastard!."

Diego smiled at his brother. "I didn't think I was this correct, but he just proved my point." He bumped his fist at Klaus' shoulder.

Luther sneered. "So, what you are saying is he ranked our powers, what does that make you, Number Two?" He taunted.

"Better than you." Diego said without missing a beat.

Luther walked forward throwing a punch at Diego, who deflected it without trying and tried to punch him before Five intervened.

"Stop it! We stopped the goddamn apocalypse and you are still acting like kids." Five adjusted his uniform. "Luther if you think you are a leader, prove it and don't start fights with anything that walks."

"I wasn't-"

Allison gave a glare to Luther that shut him up. Then she took her notepad and scribbled down. "So, about Vanya?"

"When she wakes up, we need someone to calm her down before she panics and causes judgment day." Five explained. "We are  _ not _ attacking her or locking her up so don't go there again Luther. We need someone who can talk to her without freaking her out or making her angry." He glanced at Diego.

"I can do it." Klaus volunteered but was ignored, as usual.

"I'm not the best option, I barely spoke to her before this and practically snapped at her about her book half the time. Why don't you do it Five? You two were close before you disappeared." Diego said.

"That was 45 years ago, Diego, the only thing I know about her now is the book she wrote when I read it in the apocalypse."

"I could talk to her, I mean, I can try, I probably won’t freak her out since everyone knows I'm freaky already." Klaus repeated.

"No offence but I don't know how your junkie ass can help calm Vanya." Luther began.

Allison and Diego slapped Luther on the head. "Klaus has a point, his weird self can probably find a way to talk to her without causing apocalyptic doomsday." Diego said, defending his brother for a change.

Allison scribbled down as Diego talked and shoved the notepad to Luther. "Enough, Luther."

"Guys, Discussion over, she is waking up."

___

"Klaus?" Vanya said softly looking around. "Where am I? What happened?" She whispered.

"Hey Vanny, how are you feeling? hell of a performance you did, you play really good." He said truthfully.

Vanya's eyes widened as she remembered. "Shit. My powers... I could feel all the energy and-”she began, looking at the ground she continued talking, "I saw you guys in the crowd and thought you were here to stop me, then the shooting started... how did I get here?"

Klaus took a big breath, he wasn't high enough to deal with this and what he was about to do could mess everything up, but either way he was the best choice and he was already there, so he opened his mouth and began talking, having no idea what he was going to say next. "Okay, before I explain the whole mess I'm going to be real with you, not going to lie because Dad did enough of that, but you need to control your emotions as best as you can, we don't want you to blow up this too."

Vanya nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry." Her voice broke.

"Doncha worry." Klaus shrugged it off. He took a deep breath before he explained. "After you killed Pogo and we went to the theatre, some of Five's enemies found us and started attacking us since they were supposed to protect you, so doomsday still happened.” Vanya frowned at his words, so he explained. “You apparently were the one who caused the apocalypse," Klaus extended his arms in a blow-up motion. "Poof, earth gone," he laughed, "but as you see, the sweet release of death didn't happen, we defeated the masked idiots then Allison tried to help you and you fainted."

Klaus continued to explain everything that happened in the last few hours, with a little exaggerations here and there, until Ben made him stop with it, which Vanya smiled when she realised Ben was there too, which caused her to briefly interrupt her talk with Klaus to say hello to his ghost brother.

After Klaus finished explaining everything, Vanya couldn’t say she wasn’t terrified of her and her powers, she couldn't believe she almost caused the apocalypse.

She started to cry. "Klaus, you need to stop me, if my emotions get out of control again.... and after what I did to Allison, I can't." She spilled it out, she usually never had anyone to talk to and now that Klaus was there with her, she couldn't bury her emotions as she usually did.

Klaus knew how fucked up Reginald made them since he lived being locked up first hand and all that, he had too many problems on his own but he was not letting Vanya go into her low self-esteem pity hole again.

"Nonsense V, we are not locking you up or anything like that ever again, no matter what Dad or Luther did in the past. You have us now, it took us stopping the apocalypse to realise we have to be here for each other, but we will help you now." Klaus blinked a couple of times to stop his blurry vision and shuddered, he really needed a pill, withdrawal was not easy.

"Klaus?" Vanya mumbled. "You okay?"

"Me? I’m peachy." Klaus gave a faked loopy grin before he shut his eyes hard one time before going back to the conversation. "As I was saying, we are here now, and now we can add fucked up powers to the things we have in common."

"But, I-I don't know how to control them I-"

"Samesies! As I said, welcome to the club of fucked up powers. Club is once a week every other week and you can bring sandwiches" Klaus grinned.

Vanya looked at Klaus for a moment. "Thank you."

He shrugged it off. "Don't mention it. Now, are you good enough to deal with the annoying siblings, unlike moi the greatest sibling! They wanted to talk to you."

Vanya smiled at the goofiness of her brother and nodded.

"The sibling supreme has awoken and you peasants can come now” Klaus shouted dramatically walking away from Vanya's bedroom. "Except you moon boy, I'm not in the mood for you to see Vanya." He grinned as he ducked so the pillow that Luther threw at him would not hit him. "Rude." He stuck his tongue at Luther and walked away.

He strolled through the corridor, listening to Diego and Five talking to Vanya, and Vanya apologising to Allison. He kept walking till the voices were vague and he hid himself in his room.

He flopped face up into the bed with his feet hanging in the air before they flopped too.

"You did really good back there." Ben said proudly, he was sitting in a chair casually. “I’m proud of you.”

"Yeah but now they will go back to treating me as usual in a few days, tops, you'll see, my time to shine is gone, c'est fait." Klaus mumbled.

"Have some faith, this was a wake-up call for them. They might change." Ben said wisely.

"Uh huh." Klaus was unconvinced.

"I mean it." Ben huffed. "And you should be proud of yourself."

"Sicher," Klaus said, quietly looking at the ceiling. "Whatever, I have things to do, don't have time to worry about it."

"What things?" Ben arched his eyebrow. "If you start using again...."

"Not at all Ben." Klaus bolted up from the bed with a grin. "If I can make you materialise and use your freaky tentacle kink now-"

"Don't call it that." Ben demanded in annoyance.

"Yeah, yeah, if I can do that now, I think I'm sober enough." Klaus stopped mid-sentence and started looking at the wall.

"Klaus? Sober enough for what exactly?"

Klaus smiled. "Dave. I will summon him and then all the other voices screaming at me will be worth it."

Ben smiled, it was a smile between a sad smile and a sympathy smile. "You truly care for him."

"I do." Klaus said dreamily. “I love him”

_________

"Dave? Where are you." Klaus cried, he had tried to conjure him for hours now and it was no use. The other ghosts would continue to appear more and more each time.

"D-aave." He stammered as he fell to the ground miserably. "Stop! LeAve!" Klaus was on the ground in a fetal position covering his ears. He couldn't take it, all the ghosts that were there wouldn't stop screaming at him to help them as they were filling in the room and yet not one of them was Dave.

"DAAAAAVE." Klaus sobbed onto the floor. "Please... where are you." He whimpered as he covered his eyes that were full of tears.

Ben witnessed all of it and felt useless, he hated seeing his brother like this. He tried his best to shoo the other ghosts away, which worked for a few but most of them were still there. He eventually ignored them and sat next to Klaus on the floor, he really hoped he were able to materialise in that moment, but he knew it was not up to him to be corporeal, yet he decided it couldn’t hurt to try so he carefully put an arm around his brother hoping it wouldn't phase through him.

It didn't. He was able to hug him.

And he did.

Klaus was rocking back and forth mumbling a series of "no, no, no, no" until he felt someone hug him. He looked wide-eyed at his brother before leaning into him for a comfort hug he hadn't had the luxury of experiencing since Ben was alive as he was the only brother who cared enough to comfort him back then.

When they were kids, there were a few times Ben was able to sneak into Klaus' room after Klaus was locked in the mausoleum, he had been the only one who noticed. Ben would hug his brother and tried to calm him from the ghosts. They would spend the rest of the time playing hand games if he was calm enough, and if not, they would sit in silence while he comforted Klaus.

Now, after years, Ben could comfort his brother once again.

"It's going to be okay Klaus, you'll find him. I know you will."

"But I can't, I try and try and only more pathetic ghosts appear, I can't even use my power to talk to the one person I love." He cried onto his brother’s shirt.

"You have only been trying for a few hours, maybe you just need sleep and-"

"I have been sober for three days now! Three! I should be able to conjure him." He paused. "If that won’t work, I can't keep up like this."

"Klaus don't say that, look, we can work on our powers, you can have that to look forward to." Ben tried to cheer him up. “You can’t give up this easily, think of Dave…”

"No." He whined. "I want to be numb again."

"Too bad there isn't anything in the house." Ben said. He was not letting his brother go down that road again.

"Go choke on something." Klaus said with no real harshness to it.

"Sure." Ben said shrugging, not moving from where he was.

Klaus was quiet for a while and then he sighed and looked at his brother "I’m sorry, you're right, probably need some sleep and we can try again tomorrow. I'm gonna take a shower and be back in a mo." Klaus stood up with difficulty and went to the bathroom to wash his face.

He was tired, that was true. Too tired perhaps, to forget Ben could appear whenever and wherever he wanted, so Klaus locked the door before fumbling in his pants, in a small pocket where he had an emergency set of pills he had gotten on their way to the theatre in case everything had gone sideways.

He popped the two pills in his mouth and swallowed them and sighed in relief, the effects of what he took were acting quickly.

"Klaus." Ben said with a calm anger. "What are you doing." He was behind him a few meters away.

"I just want this to stop, all the noise and ghosts and screaming... It's okay it's only for a little while." Klaus shrugged. “This will be the last time, I’ll be better tomorrow” he said and Ben had heard that so many times already he knew how it would end.

Ben tried to punch him like he did last time but his hand phased through. "What did you do." Ben’s worry increased more. “Klaus, you were doing good, don’t throw all the progress away... please.”

"Now you can't stop me." Klaus started to cry yet he was laughing and looked utterly miserable. "I'll see you in a few hours." He took another pill, the last one he had on him and when he looked up, Ben was gone. He ran his hands through his hair as his breathing became more rapid and shallow. 

He got his black robe and left the house without anyone noticing.

_________

"Has anyone seen Klaus?" Diego asked his siblings.

They all shook his head as they looked at each other. They were all in the living room, where Diego had called them a few minutes before. Vanya was sitting on the couch next to Allison, Five was standing up next to the couch and Luther was sitting on a chair nearby.

"He comes and goes, he will probably be back in a few hours or days, you know how he is. I don't know why you guys seem worried, it's Klaus." Luther shrugged, genuinely not understanding the big deal.

"He got kidnapped last time he disappeared, and no one noticed." Five pointed out. "You are all saying how we need to be there for each other, and yet you completely ignore Klaus."

"Thanks, Five." Diego took out a knife from his shirt to clean it. "We need to make sure he is okay, after what happened yesterday, we need to be more careful."

Alisson nodded in agreement before showing her notepad. "And he is sober now. might be less wary of danger. Because withdrawal."

"We need to find him, he helped me so much and if something happened to him..." Vanya looked terrified. “I would never forgive myself”

"How long has he been gone?" Luther asked, he understood where his siblings were coming from and frowned, he started to think maybe he should be worried.

"Dunno, noticed today but now that I recall I didn't see him last night." Diego told them.

At that moment, the door slammed open and Klaus strolled in. He was wearing his usual leather pants with openings at the sides, his shirt was non-existent, and he had a pink boa scarf, his veteran vest with a jacket on top of it and was barefoot.

They could see Klaus' eyeliner was smudged and it looked like he had been crying and tried to wipe it clean but had failed.

"Sibs!" Klaus yelled with a smile. "What's going on? You having a meeting or something? Why do you look so serious?" Klaus laughed. "Is this about Luther? Are we getting rid of the monkey hair?" He giggled. "If so, chocolate pudding is great for waxing."

"Klaus? Are you high?" Five frowned.

"Me? Nunca."

"Klaus." Diego swore. "Cut the bullshit."

"High, drunk, what does it matter." He shrugged, he stopped smiling and joking as he usually did.

"What did you take?" Vanya stood up from the couch and walked to Klaus. She was used to seeing Klaus high, at least lately but this felt different than before, maybe because now they were actually paying attention to him.

"Few pills, then sold one of Dad's trophies he had here and got me some money, got some more stuff and a very cheap bottle of, uh, something, can’t recall."

Vanya looked worried. "C'mon let’s get you to rest." She didn’t know what to do.

"Huh?" Klaus looked at her with question. "I'm fine, back to the bliss." Either way, he obeyed and sat down on the couch.

"That could kill you, you idiot!" Five stared at him in disbelief and growing concern.

"That won’t kill me. Apparently, nothing can cause God hates me. Besides, does that matter? I'm back baby! Numb again."

"But you were sober now." Vanya said softly.

"And what good did that do me huh?" Klaus said with a mournful laugh. "Still can't conjure him."

"Who? Ben? Klaus, you did conjure him, saved the day at that." Vanya frowned.

Klaus shook his head, not bothering to answer them. He was his careless self when he was high, but with so many questions, so many reminders... he felt destroyed again. "Dear old Dad was right, I am weak, a disappointment."

Five clutched his fits tightly and disappeared.

At this even Luther got a bit more worried, not that he would admit it. Klaus never took Reginald's side, or agree with him, he would rather die. This was not good. "Hey, where is this coming from? I thought we agreed that Dad was indeed, not right." Luther spoke calmly. “He was a rich bastard who was very good at giving us lifelong problems” he tried to give Klaus a chance for once.

"But it's true! I cannot summon one specific ghost on three days sober. Not even that. Pathetic, even Ben has had enough of me."

Diego was about to shout at Klaus, telling him he was incorrect and talk some sense into him. But Allison stopped him slightly shaking her head when she saw Diego was more angry than not.

Vanya understood what her sister was going to, so she spoke instead. "Let him rest, you can continue your interrogation when he is not in this state."

Diego sighed but nodded.

Five appeared with a glass in his hand. "Drink up." He shoved the cup to Klaus. "It will help with this." He gestured his brother. "Delores taught me that after a really bad hangover back at the apocalypse."

"Thanks, lil’ bro." He took the cup of whatever questionable liquid was in there and drank it, making a gag face when he finished.

"I am literally older than all of you." Five grumbled and glared at him.

"So am I technically." Klaus murmured.

"Huh? What?" Luther frowned.

"He is probably too high." Allison scribbled down.

"What did I say? they  _ do _ care." Ben appeared and was looking at all his brothers and sisters.

Klaus stared at him, him being there was a sign the effects of the drugs were starting to fade. He groaned. "Still, I’m not going to agree with you." He looked at the door where Ben was.

"Klaus?" Diego raised an eyebrow. His brother shrugged.

"Ben is here and he is saying stuff." He refused to elaborate.

________

Four days passed. Four days in which oddly enough the siblings barely fought even though they were under the same roof. Diego only threw knives at Luther twice and Luther was trying to shake off his ‘number one’ personality. Meanwhile Diego, Allison, Luther and Five were taking turns taking care of Klaus and Vanya.

For Vanya, they would help her calm down when she was upset when her powers started to lose control. Out of all of them Allison was the one who was spending more time with her, Klaus too.

Diego and Five spent most of the time taking care of Klaus and making sure he stayed sober.

Luther just shifted between the two groups to help whenever he could and for once he didn’t try to control them and decided to follow their lead instead.

On the fifth day they collectively decided that being locked in the house too long wasn't good for anyone and therefore would go out for dinner. Everything had been going calm and well, no idiots tried to kill Five, Vanya was doing fairly well with keeping her powers under control and Klaus wasn't trying to escape to find drugs, again. Klaus had promised himself and Ben that he would stay sober for Dave’s sake, no matter what.

So, they went out to find some nice restaurant, which they found not so far from their home.

They entered and took a seat at a booth in the corner. It was a small, almost empty diner that was open 24/7, which was preferable, considering it was already 11pm.

"I hope this place has a decent cup of coffee. I need it to function in life." Five said eyeing his cup of coffee before taking a sip from it. "Could be better, could be worse. Still, it is drinkable enough." He shrugged.

"Oh, little bro! You aren't going to find a decent coffee for a while." Klaus told him while attempting to steal his cup, which earned him a slap on his hand.

"What do you mean?" Five looked annoyed.

"You're thirteen." He laughed, Five was going to protest but Klaus shushed him. "Yeah, yeah I know the whole 'I'm fifty-eight, I'm older' bla bla. But your  _ body _ is 13, it's not used to your black coffee taste you had when you were an adult."

"That, that actually makes sense." Five said confused. "You of all people said something intelligent, wow." He said half-jokingly.

"Yeah well, Ben said it. He also said he wants waffles but that is irrelevant." Klaus eyed at an empty spot next to him.

"Tell him we'll get waffles next time." Diego said.

"But he can't eat? Why does he want waffles?" Luther pointed out.

"He can hear you, just so you know. And Luther, he wants waffles because waffles are great which is why Ben said to shut your pie hole."

"Sure he did." Five laughed, amused.

The food arrived and they all started to eat in silence, old habits were hard to break looking how Reginald had literally trained them to eat in silence.

Klaus was the first one who broke the silence. "Vanya, how's the food?"

"Good." She mumbled.

"Remember you can talk now; the old man is not going to stop you." He smiled.

Vanya shrugged with a smile. "I know, it's just... hard."

"Just like my-"

"KLAUS." The rest of them yelled at him before he could finish.

"For once don't go all Klaus humour on us." Diego pleaded. "We are eating."

"Fine." Klaus said, faking being hurt.

Allison looked at her brother with a silent laugh and shook her head.

Grace had informed them she will theoretically be able to speak eventually, but she needs to rest her larynx for a few weeks at least.

While they were eating, a couple of men in the same red masks as a few days ago entered from all entrances shooting at the ceiling as the few civilians who started running away from danger.

The men scouted their surroundings until they spotted the Hargreeves and aimed at them with zero hesitation, but the siblings were fast enough to duck and run to hide behind the counter, hours and hours of training as kids gave them the reflexes to dodge bullets in their sleep. 

Once they were there, Klaus covered his ears trying to focus. He was not fond of loud bangs or noises after... after Vietnam. In any other occasion he would have conjured Ben but he was reminded of his time in Vietnam and his vet instinct kicked in and his powers forgotten, he looked for a place for cover, then took down one of the men, took his gun and loaded it in a few seconds as he took out the rest just like he did back in ‘Nam.

Vanya tried to use her power and ended up taking down two guys. Allison kicked the crap out of one and Luther smashed two of them together. Diego took down three with his knives before he ran out of them and Five took down the rest.

Or so he thought.

When the whole commotion was over Five knew there would be more men waiting outside, so he had an idea of trying to portal them all back to the house.

He quickly yelled his plan and the Hargreeves' reunited, then held each other’s hands as Five created a portal. Five was making it, a portal big enough for all of them, Klaus laughed in amazement and Vanya was in awe.

Then a guy with the mask who was on the ground, apparently not dead, took the gun next to him and aimed at the Hargreeves'. 

He pulled the trigger.

Five closed the portal as fast as he could.

________

"That was surreal," Luther said as the siblings landed on the living room.

"I agree with moon boy, and we should totally do that again. Perhaps with less shootings and stuff." Klaus announced as he got up and tried to laugh it off ignoring the fact it had reminded him too much of the war and he never wanted to deal with it ever again.

Diego ignored them and looked around. "Is everyone okay?"

Allison and Luther nodded. Vanya was a bit shaken. "Bit anxious but I'm good."

"I mean, I'm never okay, okay but I'm not shittier than usual." Klaus laughed.

"Five?" Diego asked and looked around, not seeing his brother in sight.

"Where is Five?" Klaus said, concerned.

"Five?" Luther called out.

Vanya walked away from the living room and from the couches. "Oh my god." She said terrified. "Five!" She saw Five lying behind a couch in blood.

The rest of the siblings ran to help him.

Five had a bullet wound in his shoulder, near the chest and his usually white shirt was turning red. He was almost unconscious but trying to get up, nonetheless.

"Shit." Diego murmured. "Don't try to move, we'll get you help." He stood up and went to the next room. "Mom?! Mom?!" He shouted.

Grace came walking from the kitchen. "Yes dear?"

"It's Five, he is injured."

"Put him on the table, I'll get our first aid kit." Grace answered.

While Diego called Grace, Klaus kneeled next to Five to put pressure on his wound, getting his hands all bloodied. He was familiar enough with gunshot wounds that he had what to do to help drilled in his head. "You are going to be fine, old man, it didn't hit any vital organs from what it looks like. I'm not gonna lose you too okay." Klaus whispered at his brother, he took a piece of his shirt and wrapped it around his shoulder and arm.

Luther was going to mention something about how Klaus was supposed to know so much about injuries all of a sudden, but he kept it to himself.

Diego came back hurriedly. "Mom says to bring him to the table so she can fix him up." Diego said before leaving to help his mom get the first aid kit.

Luther picked up Five, leaving Klaus sitting on the floor. He brought him to the next room, followed by Vanya and Allison.

Klaus didn't move from where he was.

Five was on the table, and Grace carefully removed the clothes around his shoulder and dug out the bullet, stitching him up. It took a few minutes but once she was done the rest relaxed a little.

"He's going to be just fine; he just needs to rest." Grace said. "You kids did a good job in putting pressure on it and immobilising the arm so he didn’t move, it really helped him."

The siblings stared at each other confused as to who did it.

"Klaus did it." Luther told them. "He was the first one apart from Diego to do something about it."

Diego looked for Klaus to thank him, but he wasn't in the room. "Where is he?"

"I thought he came in with us when we brought Five." Vanya said.

"Klaus?" Diego called out, strutting towards the living room.

The rest of them followed close behind.

____

Five was taken away from Klaus' grasp, and he was going to follow them, he was. Then he saw his hands all bloodied, a puddle of blood was on the floor and Five's injury looked so much like....

Before he knew it he was back in the front lines again, he heard the gunshots and planes around him. Then he saw him, laying on the ground a few feet apart from him.

"Dave?" He mumbled, his sight getting blurry. Klaus crawled over to where Dave was, or rather his corpse. Dave had a hole in his chest and a whole lot of blood, his eyes had no longer the vivid spark Klaus loved, instead they were empty.

Klaus was reliving that night in Vietnam all over again.

_________

Fear and concern filled Diego as soon as he saw his brother on the floor, looking down with his face almost touching the floor and his hands were together as if he wanted to hold something.

"No, no, no, no, please, Dave." Klaus sobbed, not registering the presence of his siblings.

"Klaus?" Diego called again, terrified of the state Klaus was in. Not even at his worst had Diego seen him this bad. He hurried to sit next to Klaus, carefully touching his arm so he wouldn't scare him.

Luther and Vanya stood there in shock unable to do something.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, Klaus was still crying silently yet slowly but surely, he began to be more aware of Diego and his surroundings now.

"Tell him to breathe." Allison showed Diego instructions to help. She didn't know what was causing Klaus' reaction, but she knew he needed to calm down to stop whatever was happening.

"Klaus, breathe, whatever you were seeing isn't real, focus on my voice, breathe." Diego tried to soothe him.

Klaus was back to the real world, but after relieving that horrible night once again, he was a mess, he couldn't stop himself from breaking down, even if it was in front of his siblings. They could judge him for all he cared, they always did so it wasn’t like it was something new.

Allison's motherly instinct made her kneel down and engulf her brother into a hug. Which apparently was the correct thing to do since Klaus leaned into the hug, but that didn't stop him from him breaking down, in fact, he cried even harder.

"D-dave." Klaus mumbled barely audible as he sobbed. He was shaking from head to toe.

Diego panicked at seeing Klaus like that and he knew his brother needed to calm down but didn't know how. So, in his panicked state he went with the first idea he had on his mind and grabbed a syringe with sedatives in their first aid kit and walked over to Klaus, injecting him with it. He watched as his brother slowly lost consciousness and his breathing became even.

"What did you just do?" Vanya questioned.

"He, he needed to c-c-calm down, I p-panicked." Diego said without averting his eyes from Klaus.

"What was that? Klaus, he..." Luther didn't finish and his question went by unsaid but they understood.

"No fucking clue." Vanya frowned.

They took him to his room and Grace offered to clean him up. She washed his hands so he didn't have to wake up and see them all bloodied again, and tucked him in.

Diego noticed that ever since Mom came back after he had to deactivate her, she was more nurturing and warming than before. He didn't mind though.

_____

Klaus woke up in his room, he had no memory of entering his room. He tried to get up and only then realised he was covered by blankets.  _ He was tucked in? What the fuck? _

Klaus remembered everything, Five getting shot, the flashback, Dave... he covered his face with his hands in desperation and tugged his hair.

The flashbacks were worse each time and happened more often if he was sober. The ghosts were one thing but seeing his dead lover’s corpse more often than not was not something he could handle anymore. He couldn’t... 

He took his blankets away and stood up, squinted his eyes from the light and changed his shirt which stank of dried blood.

His hands were shaking as he put on his shoes. Then he went to the door of his room where he found Diego walking towards his room.

"Aw shit." Klaus muttered.

"Klaus?" Diego smiled as he saw his brother was awake. "You are finally awake; we were all worried."

"Yeah, kinda wish I wasn't." Klaus muttered dryly.

Diego noticed Klaus was dressed up, as if he were heading out. "You’re going somewhere?"

"As if you cared." Klaus lashed out; he knew his brother cared but pushing everyone away had been his unhealthy coping mechanism ever since he could remember.

"Klaus." Diego stopped him, grabbing his arm tightly. "Listen... we need to talk about yesterday..."

"Nah, I'm good with repressing feelings deep down where they belong." He smiled as he pulled his arm away from Diego. "Now if you excuse me, I shall go find something that will help me do just that."

Diego knew what he meant, and he was not letting that happen. "Sorry Klaus, I can't let you go so you can put shit in your body."

Klaus glared at him. "You don't understand." He grumbled, walking away.

"You're really going to make me do this huh..." Diego shook his head. "Luther!"

Luther, who was waiting nearby in case something happened, appeared from a room a couple feet away from Klaus. He walked towards him and wrapped his arms around him from behind and picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder, he was careful of not grabbing him strong enough to suffocate him but enough so he would not escape.

Klaus was dangling in the air throwing kicks at the air. "You teamed up with Luther? Now this is truly a sign of the apocalypse isn't it." He yelled.

"Well you know what they say, nothing brings two siblings together more than ganging up against the third sibling." Diego said dryly. "Take him to the living room, I'll get Vanya and Allison."

Luther nodded, and sighing, he carried his complaining brother to the dining room.

Once Vanya, Allison and Diego were there too, Luther put Klaus down, who immediately sat down in a chair, pulling both legs up and brought his knees closer together.

"I'm beginning to like you more when you barely noticed my existence." Klaus said after a minute of silence.

"Klaus." Ben warned softly. He was sitting next to Klaus looking at the rest of the siblings. "They are trying, look at them. In the last few days, they have been there for each other more times than when I was alive."

"Are you seriously playing the dead card right now?" Klaus side eyed Ben, getting arched eyebrow looks from the others.

"Look, I know you don't mean that, and apparently Ben doesn't either." Vanya started. "We are worried for you. Me especially, you helped me now it's my turn."

"We just want to help you." Luther said.

"I thank you all, but I'm quite busy at the moment so if we can see each other in what, a few years for this sibling therapy session, that would be great." Klaus said dramatically.

"Cut the bullshit." Diego interrupted. "We saw you yesterday, the state you were in..." he paused. "What happened?"

"Drugs." Klaus lied and shrugged nonchalantly.

"Yeah. Try again." Vanya crossed her arms and stared at him.

"You should tell them." Ben put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "They could help you."

"They won’t understand." Klaus said annoyed. Everyone knew he was talking to Ben now, so they let the two speak to each other.

"Why not?" Ben knew why, but he asked anyway.

"Because when I say something totally believable, like when I talk to you or when I talked to Dad, they wouldn't even believe me. They said it was the drugs talking. And Dave? They will think I am insane." Klaus whispered trying to talk only to Ben.

"Maybe you can try-"

Klaus laughed dryly. "Nah, I'll think I will just go."

"Can't do that little bro." Diego said, as he played with his knife.

Klaus was getting impatient. "Stop calling me that, I am literally older than you."

"No? You are not?" Luther questioned.

"We were born on the same day, only Five is the only one who is technically older." Vanya reminded him.

Allison tapped Klaus on the shoulder so he would turn around. "We'll listen, I promise." She had written in her notepad, ignoring her other siblings.

"Fine. You want to know?" Klaus lashed out. "I lost someone I loved. The one person I loved more than myself." He felt a lump in his throat.

Diego knew vaguely about this from the veteran's bar, but he had no idea of who or what was the deal with it.

Luther mumbled. "As if you could love anyone but yourself." He tried to joke.

Diego threw a knife at him. Hitting him with the back part in the arm.

"Ouch." Luther realised he should maybe not have said that, but it was too late.

"Shut up." Allison wrote to Luther.

"We were together for ten months. Ten beautiful, tragic months." Klaus whispered.

"What was her name?" Luther asked.

"Dear Brother of mine, what the fuck made you think Klaus was straight?" Ben said to Luther directly to his face, but it went unknown to everyone but Klaus, who shook his head with a laugh at him.

Klaus took a deep breath and looked at the wall. "His name… was Dave."

Diego looked at Klaus sadly. "Well he must be an amazing person to put up with your shit." He half joked.

"He was." Klaus' eyes were teary. "He was kind, and  _ strong _ and vulnerable." He said as his voice was breaking. "And beautiful.... beautiful." He whispered as a tear fell down his cheek.

The rest of them didn't say anything, they didn't even make a sound, waiting for him to continue. They saw how important that was.

"He was so beautiful, and I was foolish enough to follow him to the front lines."

Allison frowned. "Front lines?" She wrote, panicked.

"Vietnam." Klaus shrugged, still looking at the wall with the empty stare. "we soldiered together in the A Shau Valley in the mountain of the Crouching Beast"

"You fought in the shit?" Diego's eyes widened.

"Oh yeah." He said gloomily.

"Klaus, we are here for you and we are trying to listen and understand. We are. But you do realise what you are saying doesn't make sense. The events don't add up." Vanya said softly as she held his hand.

Klaus looked at Ben. "Told you they were going to be like this."

"Talk to them. Or talk to me, ignore they are there and tell me Dave's story again okay?" Ben said. "How did you two meet?"

Klaus was going to complain, but then nodded slowly. "After the policewoman helped me escape the torture from Cha Cha and Hazel, I took their briefcase from them, thought there would be some money or valuable shit, so I opened it. Next thing I knew I was in 1968. There I met him, he didn't treat me like a psycho or a junkie, he listened. Our times at the bar, dancing and drinking to 60s music." Klaus smiled. "It was the best of times. I had found my home with him." Klaus stopped, he didn't want to continue, it was too painful.

"Go on, you can do it." Ben encouraged.

"but" Klaus took a deep breath, shuddering. "War couldn't take enough bodies.... including his."

They all immediately understood yesterday's events. Five must have triggered some fucking traumatic memories. They couldn't fully process what was being said.

They were all shocked, shocked enough for Allison and Vanya to pull Klaus into a hug, which surprised everyone. They didn’t do hugs.

"Still not used to hugs." Klaus thought. He then thought for a moment before he knew how to make this more awkward and funny. "Group Hug!" He laughed as he pulled Diego for a hug, who brought Luther with him until they almost fell on top of them, which caused them to laugh.

Diego noticed someone from the corner of his eye and turned around. He saw Five was standing there with his shoulder bandaged and was eyeing Klaus with concern. "How long have you been there?"

"Three minutes, give or take."

"Five!" Klaus only noticed him until now. "We are doing our first mandatory group hug. Join!" he laughed.

"No way." Five said.

Klaus quickly looked at the rest of his siblings. "Let’s get him."

Before he knew it, Five was being chased by 4 adults and a ghost so they could hug him. He was running and space jumping around the house for minutes until Klaus caught him.

If he let them catch him, he would deny it for the rest of his life because he certainly did not do hugs.

__________

Ben was unsurprisingly correct again. Talking about his experience to his brothers helped Klaus. To an extent at least. He was still having nightmares and occasional flashbacks, but his brothers were there for him.

It had been a month and a half since the supposed apocalypse chaos happened and the Hargreeves siblings were closer than ever. They had their daily fights and arguments as always, but they would include everyone in family decisions and would help out, they were making progress to being an actual family.

Vanya was getting better at controlling her powers when playing her music, so she started to play her violin again, letting Klaus or the rest of her siblings join to listen to her every now and then.

Allison was all better now and began to talk again, which meant that she made Vanya have some one-on-one sister time at least once a week and would go out somewhere shopping or snack run, depending on the day. Allison even made Vanya listen to a three-hour lecture by her on red flags on men, since Vanya clearly had no idea.

Five was better from his shoulder and spent his time either with Vanya or Allison, if not, it was usual for him to leave the house without any warning. The rest learned not to ask him where.

Luther was doing progress in unlearning everything related to morals that Reginald taught him and was considerably better towards his siblings.

Diego had spent some quality time with his siblings, but his anger temperament made him throw a couple of knives at them over the course of the month-- which made Klaus fall off his chair once for laughing so much

Grace was now sweeter than ever and she had more emotions, apparently when Pogo revived her, he turned on her protective mode again, she had a sense of herself again, and was able to watch over Klaus and Vanya too now.

____

Klaus was in his usual lace leather pants and a V-neck shirt with his veteran vest. He was in the living room, his favourite place of the house where there were multiple openings and he felt less captured which meant less memories from the mausoleum.

He was relaxing when Five stormed in, scowl in his face and fists clenched. "Where is my gun!" He hissed.

Klaus immediately stood up. "What happened? Is someone after you? Again?"

"I swear I'm going to shoot them in-between their eyes to see if they think it is cute then." Five continued blabbering.

"Five!" Klaus yelled at him waving his hands in front of his face. "What happened."

Five sighed, annoyed. "Those assholes from the restaurant, or the shops, or anywhere. They never take me seriously and have asked where my parents were twice! Today!" Five teleported to the other side of the room searching the bookcase. "They have called me adorable and cute and pinched my cheeks more times that I can remember and when I went to order a coffee they gave me a hot chocolate and a kid's menu."

Klaus chuckled and shook his head. "Remind me to go with you next time, that sounds like something I can watch."

"I'm serious Klaus. I am an assassin; I have killed more people than they have met! I am Not cute!" Five reached a book and took out a hidden revolver that was there. "Aha, here it is."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Five wait a minute." Klaus said quickly. "You are totally right, you could end them, I know. But let’s not rush okay, let’s try to spend one month without killings involved."

"What do you suggest then?" Five arched his eyebrow.

"I don't know, I really didn't think you would listen." Klaus said. "Wait I know!" He walked towards Five and put an arm around him. "Some nice brother bonding time scaring the shit out of people."

"Klaus, what are you even talking about?" He frowned.

"You can scare them, just not kill them, we can go together, have a little fun with our powers, and go home. I think if I can channel Ben again you will not be treated as a child."

"I guess we'll go then. You took away my murder might as well do something."

"Great! Let me get my coat, you'll drive."

_________

The two entered a restaurant, it looked sort of like a diner and had little to no customers. There was a middle-aged woman attending who smiled when she spotted Five. Five sighed.

"Oh, it's you again! isn’t this a bit late for a young man like you?" She said with a smile.

"No, Molly. And I told you not to call me young man again. My name is Five." He sighed.

"Aren't you a funny one." She laughed. "I told you if you don't want me to call you nicknames give me a name, Five isn't one."

"Just get me the usual please. And make the coffee black this time."

"Such a young boy for coffee." She said amused, she went to pick up the coffee pot.

"Wow, you really weren't exaggerating this time. She is Cuckoo." He whistled to emphasise. "How often do you come here?" Klaus asked.

"Most of the time, it's the only decent coffee place. When they bring me what I ordered at least."

"Huh, and do you think they will bring you a kid’s menu again?" Klaus tried to hide his smirk.

"Unfortunately." Five gritted his teeth.

"Here you go, one black coffee. And I brought you the menu in case you youngling was hungry." Molly came and handed Five a kid’s menu; he rolled his eyes.

Klaus looked at Five and gave him a 'you-were-right-she-is-annoying' look. He was wearing his usual eyeliner and had changed to a nice crop top. "He told you he didn't want that." Klaus mumbled as he took the kids menu for himself. "Thank you! My favourite colouring drawing!" he said happily.

"Klaus" Five snorted, shaking his head trying to not show his laughter.

Molly stared at him. "You must be his dad." She said disapprovingly. "No wonder he comes here all the time."

Klaus sighed, here it goes again....

"What is that supposed to mean?" Five put down his coffee.

"Nothing sweet child, it's just that it's clear that he doesn't supervise you, no offence but he looks like a junkie, and dressed like that..." Molly still had her cheery tone despite being obviously disrespectful.

Ben appeared behind Klaus, clenching his jaw. "Well that’s just rude! Hit her."

"Dressed like this?" Klaus smiled. "I look fantastic, don't I? It's very liberating, you should try it." He tried to shrug it off. "And by the way I'm his brother."

"Oh, my bad." Molly fake smiled.

Five finished his coffee and threw the mug. "Listen here you asshole, don't speak to my brother like that. Only I can insult his very Klaus fashion, which he is rocking." Five started.

"Awww, Danke." Klaus said.

"That isn't proper for a young boy to say such words!" Molly frowned.

"I am not a young man! I am older than you and have killed so many people I'm the fourth frikin’ horseman!"

Klaus tapped his fingers on his arm. "This was not the plan, but I am quite enjoying it."

"Ugh, fine, but first..." Five smiled, creepily. He teleported behind her. "Stop." Then appeared in front of her. "Calling" he appeared in the kitchen to get a refill. "me" he paused. "A" he took a sip of a coffee mug. "Kid."

Molly screamed and started to run.

Ben was next to Klaus. "Make me appear, I want to give her a fright. Make me glow." Ben said excitedly.

Klaus closed his eyes and focused, feeling the familiar light through his hands. A transparent glowing Ben appeared in front of the door and his tentacles showed but didn't attack her. Molly screamed and ran to the kitchen. Five had his refill in his hand watching it with intense joy.

Klaus felt the warmth of the light in his hands spreading and he didn't hold back, he had never felt so much power. It was fun? He never thought he would call his powers fun but maybe this was different since it was the first time he used his powers for something that wasn't a life or death situation. 

Eventually he stopped channelling Ben and went back to normal. Then turned around and looked at Five. "How was it? Had fun with tu hermano? I told you we could spend time together without trying to fight each other unlike Diego and Luther." He laughed.

"Yeah that was pretty grea-" Five turned around to look at his brother and stopped in his tracks to stare at him.

"What?"

"Klaus." Five stated. "Look."

"What!?" Klaus looked around the room in confusion.

"You are floating."

Klaus looked down and saw he was a few inches from the ground, he panicked and immediately fell down. "What the fuck."

_______

"I told you I don't know!" Klaus entered the house dramatically, followed by Five.

Diego and Vanya were there when they entered. "What’s going on?"

"Nothing." Klaus shrugged

"Our dear brother Klaus here, can apparently fly." Five deadpanned.

"What!" Diego screeched.

"No, now that is not what happened. I just happened to levitate a few inches off the ground and then fell face down. I wouldn't call that flying."

"Klaus! This means your powers are growing." Vanya said.

"No, they are not." Klaus said annoyed. "If my powers were growing, I could just summon Dave, but I haven't been able to. This, the levitating, is probably some sort mal-function of the creepy shit I do."

"You still can't conjure him?" Vanya said softly.

Klaus shook his head. "It's been a month already, I can even channel Ben and use his powers but not Dave."

Diego winced sympathetically and gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"I could help you, if I did some calculations, I could find out why you can't summon him. If we find out why we might be able to get him." Five offered.

"Thanks, lil bro." Klaus half smiled.

"I am older than you!" Five scoffed

"I know." Klaus laughed.

Allison walked into the room holding a suitcase and had a long trench coat, followed by Luther.

"Going somewhere?" Klaus asked.

"Patrick is finally letting me see Claire again, I'm flying back tonight." Allison said marvelled. "I will see you guys in a few weeks if everything goes to plan."

"Really?!" Klaus exclaimed, "that is great!" He gave her a hug and grabbed his other hand when he stepped back.

Vanya half smiled. "I'm happy for you, I know how much you miss her."

"Claire?" Five spoke up after staying quiet for the whole time.

"Allison's daughter. Don't you know?" Diego asked.

"Daughter? I have been back for a whole month and a half and you idiots forgot to mention I am an uncle." Five said in a voice that sounded so old yet so young when it cracked at the end.

"The stories and magazines were everywhere, I thought you knew, sorry." Alison said.

"Well I was a bit busy with the apocalypse and then taking care of my brothers so the apocalypse 2.0 didn't happen." Five rambled.

"I will catch you up on everything when I get back, I promise." Allison said quickly, hugging Five before quickly saying goodbye to the rest. "My flight is leaving in two hours. I don't want to be late."

"Bon Voyage!" Klaus yelled as she closed the door.

Everyone stood there in awkward silence for a good minute before Five cleared his throat and turned to Klaus. "So, are we doing the calculations so you can summon Dave or not? I'm not young enough to wait all day."

"Na sicher, let’s go mon Frére."

____________

Five and Klaus had been in the office room for a few hours now, Five making notes and calculations as he spoke aloud and Klaus was nodding along to it, trying to understand the blabbering his brother was ranting about, but failing.

"Based on what we know of your powers, and the time you have been sober, it should be easy to summon him. All my calculations point to the same conclusion, you  _ should _ be able to conjure him." Five was getting more and more frustrated as he scribbled down some equations. "Have you tried summoning others? Or is Dave the only ghost you can't see?"

"Honestly, I haven't tried to conjure anyone else, the only one that mattered is Dave. Ben shows up all the time but it's usually because he is stubborn, not because I called him."

"Can you try and conjure someone different? Maybe the problem is the power not Dave." Five thought aloud.

"Who? There is no one else I can think of." Klaus mumbled.

"Eudora." Diego said from the doorframe.

"How long have you been here?" Five demanded.

"Not long. Was just checking to see if Five had lost his patience with you yet." He half joked. "I, uh, overheard and if you need to focus on someone to conjure... Eudora could be an option."

"Who?" Five asked.

"Wasn't she your police friend- Oh." Klaus understood, feeling a pang of sympathy for his brother.

"She- she didn't wait for help. I kept telling her to do things my way... she never listened to me, until.... I wished she hadn't li- listened." Diego stuttered; he was not good with the emotions part.

"Alright." Klaus agreed, he closed his eyes, focusing on the police lady, since he only met her briefly, he had to concentrate more. He took a deep breath and focused on the quiet of the room, he could feel his two brothers watching him.

"Nice to properly meet you, Klaus."

Klaus opened his eyes and Patch was in front of him. She had her brown jacket and a blue shirt with a big patch of blood in the middle of her chest. She was looking at Klaus before turning her eyes at Diego and her face softened.

"Hello." Klaus said. he truly did it.

"Diego..." Patch said softly.

"He can't hear you, hold on let me try something." Klaus said before closing his eyes and trying to channel her.

A few moments passed and Diego spoke up. "E-Eudora?" Diego mumbled.

Patch was standing a few feet away with a faint smile. "I told you not to call me that."

Diego was dumbfounded, it was too overwhelming for her to be there, he couldn't say the words to speak.

Klaus noticed this and nudged Five with his elbow. "Let’s give this two some privacy. Since I'm not channelling powers too I think I can hold her visible for Diego from the other room."

__________________________

"You can summon anyone but Dave, this is not normal, I guess we just need to work harder on this. Just like the case I was assigned last month when I was working with the handler." Five said seriously. "I'm not giving up yet."

"Wait last month? Wasn't that after you appeared again? Wasn't your deal broken or something?" Klaus stopped looking at the notes and dribbles he was doing and looked at Klaus.

"I'm impressed you remembered that."

"Hey, contrary to belief, I do listen."

"Basically after you came back from the past I called Cha Cha and Hazel to give them the briefcase."

"Which I destroyed..." Klaus chimed in.

"Yes, so I had to make a fake one, and when I met them I made them call the Handler." Five paused. "She offered protection for you guys if I worked there again. Obviously it was fake so I went there, exploded the whole place and left to start Wednesday again so I could have an extra day to stop the Apocalypse."

"Wow..." Klaus pondered for a second. "But how did you get the travel right? Didn't you say if you miscalculated you could end in the wrong place or body?"

"Stole a briefcase and threw a grenade at the rest." Five shrugged.

"Cool." Klaus said.

"Hey guys." Vanya entered, holding a plate of food. "I thought you guys might be hungry, I made you peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches Five. I made extra for Klaus if you wanted."

"Thanks V!" Klaus smiled and grabbed two pieces for him, eating a bite of it immediately.

"Thank you, Vanya." Five grinned and got a full sandwich piece.

The three of them stayed there talking as they ate their sandwiches and talked a bit more about any possible hypothesis or idea that could explain the odd circumstance of Dave not being summoned, then the conversation shifted as Vanya began to tell them of Emily, her new crush she met at the store the other day.

Klaus excused himself to sleep a few hours later and headed to his room, Vanya and Five stayed there, eating more sandwiches while she told Five about Claire.

Klaus arrived at his room and plopped down on his bed fully clothed and groaned from exhaustion.

"You are truly an idiot." Ben said.

"Thanks for the observation, tell me something I don't know." Klaus laughed dryly.

"I'm serious." Ben deadpanned.

"Fine, I'll bite the bait. Why am I an idiot? Do enlighten me." He said dramatically.

"What Five told you?"

"What about it?" Klaus mumbled.

"When he worked with the Handler? And he rewinded a day?"

Klaus perked up from the bed quickly and stared at Ben. "OH."

"Yes, exactly, oh. He had a damn briefcase."

"I am truly an idiot!" Klaus exclaimed.

"Yeah. I know." Ben said.

"I need to find that briefcase"

_____

"February 21st, 1968, got it." Klaus said as he put in the date on the briefcase.

"How did you even manage to get that without Five's knowledge?" Ben asked.

"I have my ways." Klaus grinned and held the briefcase tightly.

"Are you sure you are ready?" Ben whispered as he put a hand on Klaus' shoulder. "Remember I won’t be there since I wasn't dead, technically I wasn't even alive back then."

"I know.” Klaus grabbed the dog tags from his neck with his ‘goodbye’ hand “I need to get Dave back, no matter what. I- he is all I have." Klaus mumbled sadly.

"You have me, and the rest of our siblings." Ben pointed out.

"It's not the same thing, he is my home, he is my everything." Klaus did his best to not start crying.

"Alright Klaus, be careful, you can't be seen by the past you. And you need to try and keep things linear in the timeline or if not, you might change history and then end up never meeting him and messing the future."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Klaus nodded.

Klaus opened up the briefcase and he was gone. Ben stood in his bedroom alone.

______

Past Klaus was yelling for a medic, holding a bleeding and unconscious Dave in his hands. He kept shouting in horror and wouldn't leave his lover's body.

Present Klaus saw from afar, he was supposed to travel back a few hours before the incident so he could avoid Dave getting shot, but as Five said, time travel is tricky, even with a briefcase. And that is how he ended up appearing back in Vietnam only moments after Dave got shot.

Klaus knew he needed his past self to get away from Dave so he could go to him, this was his last chance of saving him, so he covered his head with a helmet that was on the ground, probably from a deceased soldier, and carefully ran to Dave and his past self.

His past self was too in shock to notice Klaus was dragging him away until some soldiers took over and led him away, Klaus had business to do and a boyfriend to save.

He ran to Dave, checked for a pulse, which was there, barely, but he was alive. "I got you, honey bun." He whispered as he cupped Dave's face in his hand while holding the briefcase with the other.

He opened it again, and they were back in the present.

And lucky enough near a hospital.

Klaus picked up Dave and ran to the hospital.

"Help, help!" He shrieked as he entered, everyone was staring at him and a few nurses ran towards him as they saw Dave unconscious and bleeding.

The nurses took him away to the operation room while Klaus was crying to see Dave, demanding to let him go with him.

A nurse stayed with him to check if he was injured--after all, holding Dave caused his clothes and arms to be all bloodied- told him that he could wait for him in a room where Dave would be brought after the surgery.

Klaus didn't let the nurse check for injuries but did let her guide him to the hospital room where he plopped on the chair and put his legs up, hugging them and shivering. He was not coping well with reliving Dave getting shot... and the war.

"Excuse me sir," the nurse said. "I'm going to need information from your friend and yours, doctor's policy."

"Dave. His name is Dave Katz and they better get him to me alive." He said, voice trembling.

The nurse nodded, not bothering to ask his name as she saw he was too shaken up. Then left the room.

Four hours passed and Klaus had barely moved from the chair, waiting.

Then the door opened, and a few doctors entered with Dave behind them on the hospital bed. Unconscious.

Klaus jumped and ran to Dave's side. "How is he." He stuttered quietly.

"He had an awful wound; it took us some time to take the bullet and shrapnel from his chest. His heart stopped once, however, we managed to bring him back. He is unconscious from the drugs we gave him and it's too early to tell if he will make a full recovery."

"But he will make it?" Klaus asked, hopeful.

"That is what it looks like, we just don't know if he will have any heart or chest problems after, but he is a fighter, he’ll survive."

"You heard that Dave? You are going to make it." Klaus held Dave's unconscious hand and looked at him with tears in his eyes. “We’re going to be okay” He smiled and for the first time in a long time he felt hopeful and happy.

**Author's Note:**

> What did y'all think? Comments and kudos are appreciated and encouraged! I am thinking of doing a second part to this showing when Dave wakes up and all that, should I? or should I leave it like this? 
> 
> I tried to avoid making the characters too ooc, hopefully I succeeded, however, I have a HC that Klaus absolutely calls Dave the most silly and cheesy pet names and no one can convince me otherwise. Also, Not that anyone asked but the title is inspired by the song "False Confidence" by Noah Kahan because it reminds me of Klaus. 
> 
> Find me on Tumblr as @BrightTerror, I'm taking prompts.


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